Black and white
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Serie Vera y Victoria
Mar Sáez
Photography - 48 x 68 x 3 cm Photography - 18.9 x 26.8 x 1.2 inch
$664
El templo de santa Barbara
Justo Pastor Acea Gomez
Painting - 67 x 95 cm Painting - 26.4 x 37.4 inch
$1,328
Ray Charles
Jacques Beneich
Photography - 70 x 100 x 1 cm Photography - 27.6 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$2,766
Ours au poisson
Jean-Michel Chesné
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 50 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 19.7 inch
$941
Richard Wright, Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii
Jacques Boumendil
Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$719
Nicolas de Staël dans son atelier
Denise Colomb
Photography - 30.8 x 38 cm Photography - 12.1 x 15 inch
$1,770
August Moon III
Paul Schütze
Photography - 116 x 79 x 5 cm Photography - 45.7 x 31.1 x 2 inch
$3,319
Guerre d'Algérie / Paris Match
François Pages
Photography - 55 x 55 x 0.1 cm Photography - 21.7 x 21.7 x 0 inch
$664
François Mitterrand à Solutré
Patrick Artinian
Photography - 30 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$775
Portrait de Paul Gauguin
George-Daniel de Monfreid
Print - 17.3 x 12.2 x 0.1 cm Print - 6.8 x 4.8 x 0 inch
$5,422
Wild wild west
Scott Weingarten
Photography - 70 x 45 x 3 cm Photography - 27.6 x 17.7 x 1.2 inch
$5,532
Sin título (Prayer Flags Series)
Imanol Marrodán
Sculpture - 45 x 52 x 0.5 cm Sculpture - 17.7 x 20.5 x 0.2 inch
$245
Dassault flamant triptyque
Studio Cui Cui
Photography - 35 x 75 x 2 cm Photography - 13.8 x 29.5 x 0.8 inch
$1,649
Mr et Mme Hulot - Photographie scène de vie en bord de mer
Denis Morel
Photography - 20 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$487
Icons - Fight of the Century - End of Fight - Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali, 1971, Silver Gelatin Print
Catherine Ursillo
Photography - 50.8 x 61 cm Photography - 20 x 24 inch
$3,000
Portrait of Sabau (too much pressure)
Andrei Cristian Petrescu
Photography - 80 x 60 x 4 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 1.6 inch
$3,873
Terres brûlées I
Luc Médrinal
Photography - 33 x 35 x 0.5 cm Photography - 13 x 13.8 x 0.2 inch
$664
Temporal Disorder - 19
Radu Corneliu Sarion
Photography - 40 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$553
Mirella Petteni, Oslo
F.C. Gundlach
Photography - 59.7 x 50.2 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.5 x 19.75 x 0.1 inch
$6,900
View of Rotterdam
Ria Klaveren-Exel
Print - 46.3 x 57.5 x 0.2 cm Print - 18.2 x 22.6 x 0.1 inch
$443
The Beautiful Chaos of the Summer birds song
Danny O'Connor
Print - 61 x 107 x 3 cm Print - 24 x 42.1 x 1.2 inch
$428
2050-30
Van de Camp & Heesterbeek
Photography - 100 x 100 x 1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$4,426
Potato with Nails
Andrei Roiter
Photography - 27.94 x 35.56 x 2.54 cm Photography - 11 x 14 x 1 inch
$500
Bateau à sec sur le lac Baïkal
Christophe Gibourg
Photography - 100 x 100 x 1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$830
Christian Lattier Portrait
Christian Lattier
Photography - 17.5 x 16.5 cm Photography - 6.9 x 6.5 inch
$5,422
Johanna, Courrèges Haute couture, Champs-Elysées, Paris
Peter Knapp
Photography - 21.2 x 21.2 x 0.5 cm Photography - 8.3 x 8.3 x 0.2 inch
$3,983
Congregations Beth Hamedrash and Holche Josher Wizaner, Manhattan/NYC
Petra Wunderlich
Photography - 60 x 75 x 3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 29.5 x 1.2 inch
$9,184
Jeanne Hébuterne - Planche 64
Nadine Van Der Straeten
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.7 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0.4 inch
$542
John Lennon, More Popular Than Jesus
Harry Benson
Photography - 53.3 x 61 x 5.1 cm Photography - 21 x 24 x 2 inch
$4,600
Silhouette IX
Deana Nastic
Photography - 101 x 76 x 1 cm Photography - 39.8 x 29.9 x 0.4 inch
$5,864
The Tiger
Maria Ginzburg
Fine Art Drawings - 48 x 70 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.9 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$387
Keith & Hummingbird, RCA Studios, Hollywood
Gered Mankowitz
Photography - 63.5 x 48.3 x 5.1 cm Photography - 25 x 19 x 2 inch
$2,200
The Taj Mahal At Agra
Victoria and Albert Museum
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 cm Photography - 40 x 60 inch
$498
Little Buddha
Robert Curran
Photography - 105.4 x 86.4 x 2.5 cm Photography - 41.5 x 34 x 1 inch
$2,500
Untitled (wall and mirror)
Mikael Siirilä
Photography - 22 x 15 cm Photography - 8.7 x 5.9 inch
$354
United Arab Emirates
Alexandre Manuel
Photography - 100 x 100 x 4 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.6 inch
$3,873
Detected Dictionnary (Wolfsschädel)
Stefan à Wengen
Painting - 30 x 25 x 4 cm Painting - 11.8 x 9.8 x 1.6 inch
$3,319
Poséidon (Christophe Charbonnel)
Michel Di Maggio
Photography - 110 x 94 x 5 cm Photography - 43.3 x 37 x 2 inch
$2,766
Sans titre 1
Charles Durand
Fine Art Drawings - 29 x 39 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.4 x 15.4 inch
$387
Joyeux Noël et un bon 1980
Michael Lechner
Print - 37.5 x 28 x 1 cm Print - 14.8 x 11 x 0.4 inch
$332
Amazing Spiderman
Mike McKone
Fine Art Drawings - 44 x 28 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.3 x 11 x 0.4 inch
$2,434
Serie Mujeres Barbudass
Marina Núñez
Photography - 100 x 130 x 5 cm Photography - 39.4 x 51.2 x 2 inch
$8,631
Void #07
Agathe Toman
Fine Art Drawings - 120 x 67 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 47.2 x 26.4 x 0.2 inch
$6,639
Two Women on the Subway, New York City
Walker Evans
Photography - 28.6 x 27.9 cm Photography - 11.25 x 11 inch
$5,000
Bar le Soleil (Ménilmontant)
Amadou Gaye
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$443
Black and white
Before the arrival of photography – with the exception of some etchings and lithographs – all the images we consumed were in colour. Quite simply, because no one would ever have thought to do anything else – why paint in black and white when colour was so readily available?
Yet despite this, today many photographers still choose to work in black and white – such as Pauline Théon, Kadir Von Lohuizen or Joh Lowenstein – even though their photos are taken in colour by the camera itself. Is the black and white trend a fleeting effect of fashion, or a symbolic return to the roots of the photography movement? Black and white photography has something that colour photos, despite recent innovations and the extraordinary quality of images today, cannot quite access. The use of black and white lends significant force to the composition: the contrasts, the shadows and the figures all stand out more strongly. People simply feel differently when faced with a colour photo versus a black and white image.
Colour is a distraction of sorts, a disturbance: colour is a nuisance.
And yet, some photographers still prefer colour to black and white, whilst others merge touches of colour with otherwise monochrome compositions. But in the end, all agree that both styles impose a totally different way of looking at a photo: from researching the shot to post production work, when artists develop or retouch the image. The use of colour is therefore something of a process in its own right, relating to two different ways of viewing the world and showing it others. The question, then, is what is being told, and why is it being in the way that it is?
The symbolic value of putting black and white together is a good starting point for reflecting on the fascination that they generate even today. There could not be a more fascinating, more striking ambivalence than when black, the 'colour' of darkness and burnt coal, considered a non-colour, is placed alongside white – representing light, and the result of all the colours merged together.
The problem faced by photographers today is that black and white still carry strong connotations of the past, of an era before the popularisation of colour and its massive cultural recovery amongst the press and photo journalists. In fact, it is rare now that contemporary subjects are photographed in colour, but we still associate black and white images with a retro feel.
So what does contemporary art have to say about it all? Discover Artsper's selection of black and white works: on the border of past and present, of the real and the imaginary… let us guide you!